supernova smile
by perfectlyrose
Summary: Doctor James Smith owns and runs a bookshop and is usually more concerned with the books than the people in the shop. Then a blonde with a smile like a supernova starts visiting the shop, and him, weekly and turns his world upside down. (Twelve/Rose Bookshop AU)
1. Chapter 1

So I wrote this as a headcanon meme response for lunarsilverwolfstar a while back and there was interest in me expanding upon it and I've finally gotten there! The reason I've finally gotten this written is because it's chocolatequeen's birthday! So this story is dedicated to you and I hope you have an absolutely stellar birthday!

* * *

He was tinkering with the remnants of what used to be his laptop the first time she came in. He didn't look up when he heard the soft tinkle of the bell that Clara insisted he keep above the door, figuring that if whoever it was had questions, they'd find him. No need for him to make a fuss about their entrance.

That lasted until he looked up and saw her lingering in front of the sci-fi section, contemplating the books and chewing on the side of her thumb. It was a quick glance up that turned into a double take, peering at her profile from underneath his eyebrows, hands stilling as his pretense of tinkering ceased.

She was blonde, that was the first bit of information to register. She was blonde and of middling height and the way she kept shifting her weight from foot to foot while she read the summary of a book kept drawing his eyes down to her hips.

The woman was nothing out of the ordinary - mid to late twenties, bit more attractive than the norm, apparently interested in sci-fi - and he couldn't put his finger on why his attention had been caught by her.

She turned suddenly, too quickly for him to avert his gaze and pretend he was still tinkering, and flashed him a smile before wandering off to the history section, apparently unaware that she'd just stopped time momentarily with a single expression.

He watched her go before shaking his head and staring back down at the machinery in his hands. She had a smile like a supernova - beautiful and potentially destructive. Not ordinary after all, then, he thought absently, tightening a screw. Perhaps he'd been sensing that power in potentia and that was what had drawn his attention.

That had to be it.

She browsed the store for an hour before slipping out the door with the tinkle of the bell, another smile, and no new books.

James returned to his tinkering with renewed intensity trying to put the blonde out of his head. He'd probably never see her again anyways.

"What's got you all frowny?" Clara asked when she walked into the store fifteen minutes later. Her bag dropped onto the counter with a thunk as she leaned over it to take a look at what James was working on. "Break somethin' you can't fix?"

"None of your business," he answered gruffly.

"Suit yourself, Doctor," she said, rolling her eyes affectionately. She knew he'd spill eventually and it was really no use trying to talk to him when he was determined to be in a bad mood. "Why don't you go back to your office and stop scaring off the customers with that glare of yours."

He just settled into his chair further, prompting another sigh from Clara. She stashed her bag next to his chair and went to go check on the couple of customers milling about.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For the next week, Blue Box Books operated normally. No overly unusual customers or mishaps to speak of. It was a Tuesday, exactly a week since the blonde had come in, when she walked through the door again.

She doesn't see him, just heads straight to the romance section and starts browsing.

James frowned a bit, having expected her to go back to the science fiction or one of the other sections she'd lingered in last week. He considers going to see if she needs help or possibly shelving the stack of romance novels that he'd found out of order somewhere else in the shop but he doesn't.

She was just another customer and he would treat her that way, he told himself. That meant ignoring her.

He tried to listen to his own advice valiantly as he checked over the inventory on his screen and browsed for books that he wanted to add to the store.

(He tried but he still knew exactly where she was at all time.)

She surprised him when she approached the counter. His head snapped up and he was confronted with that smile again, that beautiful, dangerous smile.

"Hello," she said, closing the distance between her and the desk and laying her chosen book down.

"Find what you were looking for, then?" he blurted out, foregoing the greeting.

"Oh, you're Scottish!" she exclaimed, smile widening further.

"Means I get to complain about things," James said, mouth quirking up just the slightest bit at the corners, and gesticulating with one of his hands. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"Um, just didn't imagine you as Scottish," she answered with a shrug.

Her cheeks colored when he raised his eyebrows.

"Not that I've been imagining you," she rushed to assure him. "I just make up stories in my head about people sometimes and I saw you here last week and I just didn't expect…" she groaned and put a hand over her face. "Can I try this again?"

James couldn't help it, he let out a small laugh and was pleased when it drew another smile from his blonde customer. "Please feel free, it's usually me who can't get through a conversation."

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?" she asked.

"Probably not, but I'm sure you'll find something to hold over me eventually, if you dare to come back again."

She leaned forward, breaking the plane of the counter between them. "I think I'll have to dare then."

James had no clue what to make of her smile, of the little bit of tongue peeking out of the corner of it. He'd never been good with reading expressions or intent and this conversation had him at sea but he really, really hoped this woman would be coming back sometime.

"Excellent," he replied. He grabbed the book off the counter and gave it a brief glance. "Like romances, do you? Thought I saw you in the sci-fi section last time."

"The two often overlap," she said. "Plus, I like a bit of variety."

"Good, good. Come to the right store then. Nothing else like it in the city," he boasted.

"I've noticed. The collection here is more eclectic and I love it," she enthused, looking over her shoulder at the room full of shelves and books. "Whoever orders the books has excellent taste."

James glanced at the screen of his laptop that was still open to the books he was considering but didn't say anything. Instead, he scanned the barcode of the book she'd selected, read off the price and concentrated on counting out her change from the twenty pound note she handed him.

"Thanks for stopping in," he said awkwardly, handing over her change and then her purchase. He didn't normally talk much to the customers, even when doing transactions like he was now. He paid Clara to be nice to the people in the store so that he didn't have to, but this was different somehow and he wished he knew the right words to say.

She stuffed the change in her purse and gave him one last smile. "I'll see you later," she said.

Then she was gone and James desperately was trying to convince himself that her words didn't sound like a promise so that he wouldn't get his hopes up.

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Week after week, the blonde would come into the shop on Tuesday afternoons. She browsed the store, sending brilliant smiles his way whenever she caught him looking at her. She started making a habit of coming over to the register to chat with him even when she wasn't buying something.

And she didn't buy books very often. James wasn't entirely sure why she came in every week when she'd only bought two books in a month and a half. His blonde apparently just liked running her fingers over the spines of books, liked seeing all of the possibilities literally at her fingertips.

He still hadn't been able to put his finger on what her favorite type of books were. She visited almost every section in the store and didn't seem to linger in any particular one longer than others. He'd tried to ask her but she just told him again that she liked a variety, liked to read a little bit of everything.

"I know that look," Clara said, breaking him out of his reverie. "You're thinking about that blonde who visits you every Tuesday, again."

"How do you do that?" he demanded. "You're like a mind reader."

"No, you just have tells," she said, plopping down in the chair opposite him in his office. She'd just closed up the shop and come up to talk to her friend.

"Do not."

"You so do, Doctor. Now tell me about your girlfriend."

"Not my girlfriend," he asserted. "She's just a customer."

Clara leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Her hair swung forward to frame her face. "You're kidding right? You don't pay attention to the customers unless you're forced to and you're always cheerier on Tuesdays. She means something to you."

James pressed his lips into a thin line, refusing to answer. "We need to go over our book order for next month," he started, trying to change the subject.

"Oh no you don't," Clara said, reaching out to snag his arm when he tried to stand up. "We're not done talking yet. What's the girl's name?"

James looked away from Clara. "I don't know," he admitted.

Clara let go of him in her shock. "She's been in here every week for a month and a half and flirts with you like crazy and you don't know her name?"

"She's not flirting with me. She's just being nice. She's a nice person," he said, gesturing as he started pacing.

"She's definitely flirting. I've seen it," she insisted, sitting back in her chair. "And you flirt back. No, you don't get to deny it," she said, cutting him off as he opened his mouth.

James sat back down heavily. "It doesn't matter," he said.

"How do you not know her name?"

"It's never come up in conversation."

"Then ask for it!"

He shot her a look through his fingers, face buried in his hands.

"Well, at least you can quit acting like she's just another customer when she's obviously not," Clara said with a smile.

"No," he said, pointing at her. "I know that smile, that's you not-good smile. You start planning things when you have that smile."

"Do not," Clara said, schooling her face into a neutral, innocent expression.

"Do so."

"Can't prove anything," she said.

"Do not do anything. I mean it."

Clara drew an x over her heart with her finger. "Still think you should ask her out though."

"Can I get back to talking about books now?"

She made a go-ahead gesture and he started spouting off information about the books he was planning to buy for the next month.

James knew there was no way Clara was going to let him off the hook this easily but he'd take the temporary reprieve anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

and finally the second installment has arrived! happy very belated birthday nancy!

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James was on edge the next couple of Tuesdays, waiting for Clara to enact whatever plan she'd almost certainly hatched despite him forbidding her to do anything or meddle in his non-existent, potential love life. Other than making sure she was in the shop on the days his blonde, the blonde, came in, and making sure to remind him to tame his hair somewhat before she walked in, Clara was suspiciously well behaved, though.

If felt like the calm before the storm.

He learned more about his favorite patron as the weeks passed. She drifted into the romance and sci-fi sections the most often, followed by mysteries and history. He'd caught her lingering in front of the display of Charles Dickens books he'd set up around the author's birthday and the two of them had had a lively chat about their favorite novels that had kept him in high spirits until the next Tuesday.

That week she was barely in the shop for fifteen minutes, the shortest amount of time she'd ever lingered. James had been looking around for her when he spotted her walking out. She gave him a wan smile, one that was tired or sad and nothing like any smile he'd ever seen on her before, before disappearing back into the busy London streets where she had a name and a job and a life.

The next week she was back in for her normal length of time and made sure she spent a good portion of it chatting with James at the desk.

" _Anything interesting come in this week?" she'd asked, leaning a hip against the counter and smiling at him. (It was the peculiar one with the tongue sticking out the side of it, the one that made his stomach flip and his mind go blank.)_

" _New batch of travel books," he said after a moment, watching her face carefully for a clue as to why the travel section, the section Blue Box Books was most well known for, was the one she never wandered into._

 _(He didn't know how to categorize the look on her face. It was almost sad but not quite.)_

" _Couple new mysteries as well," he offered when she stayed silent._

He was still mulling over the interaction a day later, fingers steepled in front of his face in his office half an hour after closing. He knew Clara would tell him to just ask why she never browsed the travel section but he didn't want to let on that he kept track of where she was in the shop at all times, that he tried to figure her out by her book choices.

It was the same reason he never asked for her name. Knowing would make this all real somehow, would make them want to put a label on what they were doing, it was just human nature. Right now, she was just his weekly blonde patron and he was presumably the old bookseller that she didn't completely hate.

He wasn't ready to change things yet. Things were good as they were.

Of course, Clara didn't agree, telling him in no uncertain terms that she would get the blonde's name herself if he didn't hop to it.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Clara had to laugh to herself when she walked into his office on Monday night and found him rehearsing a conversation, rehashing one that he'd had with the blonde the week before and correcting what he'd said.

She bit her lip so as to not make a noise and give herself away and slowly backed out of the room. Her Doctor was in so deep and she didn't think he quite realised it yet.

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It was another Tuesday and he walked out of the stockroom with an armful of books only to almost trip over his own feet as he saw Clara chatting with his blonde in the classics section. He kept a wary eye on them as he sat down behind the counter and pretended to be busy.

He'd just turned around to check an order that was waiting for a customer to come pick it up when she walked up.

"So, I was starting to think that you were the only one who worked here," she said.

He turned around quickly and found her leaning against the counter, fingers drumming on the Jane Austen book she'd put on the counter.

"No, Clara is here most days to deal with people," he said, nodding at the brunette who was lurking nearby and unsubtly giving him a thumbs up behind the blonde's back.

"Better at handling books?"

He nodded.

"Don't know, you seem pretty good at handling me," she said, smile a bit mischievous.

James's brain shorted out for a moment as he processed the completely unambiguous flirt. "You're different," he finally blurted out, wincing as the words came out of his mouth. He really hadn't meant to say that.

Her smile turned softer and she started toying with the ends of her hair. "So you and Clara…" she said, trailing off. When he just looked at her, puzzled, she continued. "Are the two of you together?"

"Oh! No, no. Clara has a girlfriend," he hurriedly told her, gesturing at his friend.

"Broke up with her couple of weeks ago," Clara called as she walked by.

"You never tell me these things," he shot back.

"Do too, you just don't listen."

"I listen!" He protested.

Clara just rolled her eyes and gave him a fond smile before walking off.

"You two are adorable," the blonde said, valiantly trying to hold in a laugh. "Been friends a long time?"

"Yeah, she sticks around for some reason."

"You seem worth it," she offered.

The Doctor didn't know what to say to that and reached for the book in between them. "Clara talk you into this one," he asked, taking in the paperback of Pride and Prejudice.

Thankfully she let the moment drop and followed his lead back into the land of books where he actually could keep his footing and not be tripped up by her gravity.

"Yeah, she said it was a crime against literature that I hadn't read it."

They chatted for a couple minutes more about Jane Austen and Clara's obsession with her before the blonde took the bag with the book in it, told him goodbye, and walked out.

"So, I know her name now," Clara said from behind him, making him jump.

"Are you going to share?"

"Don't think so. You should figure it out yourself because she's definitely interested in you." She smiled up at him brightly. "You can't deny that she was flirting with you today _and_ she was making sure you were single."

"Doesn't mean anything," he insisted.

"You're hopeless. Believe me, I know flirting and she's definitely flirting with you." Clara hopped up on the counter, sitting so her legs were swinging in the air. "Plus, I tried flirting with her and she brushed me off very nicely while shooting glances at you. So, her taste is questionable but she's definitely set her cap at you."

James just shook his head and started poking at the keyboard, ostensibly to check their online orders.

"Gonna have to face up to it eventually or she'll stop coming round," she said, jumping down and walking off, leaving him to his thoughts.

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By the time Tuesday rolled around, James had finally convinced himself that he was going to ask for the blonde's name. Clara's warning about the fact that she wouldn't always be stopping in if he didn't at least try and the fact that she'd been gloating all week that she knew her name and he didn't, had finally spurred him to action.

He put on his favorite jacket, the one with the red lining, and made sure his hair wasn't too wild and then tried to pretend that he wasn't looking up every time someone walked into the shop or that there wasn't a pang of disappointment every time it wasn't the particular blonde he was waiting on.

Her normal time to appear came and went and still he was waiting. Clara shot him increasingly worried looks as she took care of the customers and generally kept people away from him as the scowl on his face deepened.

By the time they closed the shop, he'd stopped talking completely and shut himself in his office. Clara tried to talk to him but he wouldn't open the door. She gave him one last worried look before leaving him to wallow, figuring she'd have better luck talking to him tomorrow anyways.

He should have seen this coming, he thought as he sat at his desk after closing, head in his hands. There was no way she was going to come round the shop forever, just like Clara had said. He just hadn't thought he'd lost his chance already when she'd walked out with that smile last week.

He should have known better than to think he had a shot.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He was still in a dark mood the next day, brushing off Clara's attempts to talk, telling her that they could discuss it after closing. He was just organizing the books to shelve, one of his first tasks of the day when the bell above the door announced a visitor.

"We're not open yet," he called, not bothering to look up. "Come back in half an hour."

"Sorry. I just saw the lights on and the door was unlocked so I didn't check the hours."

James whipped around at the familiar voice and saw his blonde by the door, looking nervous. "You're back!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, came in as soon as I could. I'm so sorry I didn't come by yesterday like normal," she started explaining, walking towards him and still wringing her hands together. "Friend of mine needed an emergency lift across town because their car broke down and they had a presentation and then-"

"Do you want to go get a coffee? With me? Sometime?" He blurts out, interrupting her. He fidgeted as she processed the question, shocked look on her face. Just the fact that she had come in as soon as she could to explain why she hadn't been in on her normal day, that she felt like she _had_ to explain gave him the bit of courage he hadn't found yet.

Their unofficial standing date meant something to her as well and that was all the hope he needed.

As soon as she got through the shock, a bright smile, akin to the supernova he'd first compared it to, bloomed on her face. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"I'm James by the way," he said, sticking his hand out. "Most people call me the Doctor though. Clara's fault."

"Well then, Doctor, it's lovely to officially meet you. I'm Rose, Rose Tyler." She reached out and shook his hand and then didn't let it go, moving instead to intertwine their fingers. "You have time for that coffee right now?" She asked.

"Clara, mind the shop!" He shouted over his shoulder before looking back down at Rose. "Perks of being the owner," he said with a wink. "Lead on."

Rose laughed and tugged him out the doors.

"You never told me you were the owner, you wanker," Clara heard Rose say as the door shut behind them, leaving her with the shop to herself and a huge smile on her face.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Rose remained a familiar presence in the shop, coming in more often and always greeting James with a kiss on the cheek. She ventured into every section of the shop now and told him that the reason she never went into the travel section was because she desperately wanted to travel but didn't have the money to go any of the places that the books talked about.

When she told him one night as they lie tangled together in their bed that she'd found her biggest adventure in him instead of in the pages of the books they both loved, James responded with an offer of half ownership in the shop, the ring that had been in his nightstand for a month and half, and a promise of a lifetime of adventure together.

She said yes immediately and sealed her own promise with a kiss.


End file.
